The Great Thaw Part IV
by lost-in-arendelle
Summary: Anna takes a badly wounded Kristoff to the trolls with Elsa and Tor of the Southern Isles at her side, knowing that they must act quickly to save him. But they aren't the only ones heading straight for the trolls, and when Hans arrives to spoil their plans, an epic battle of wills, words, fire, and ice ensues. Part IV/IV.


Anna stroked the hair from Kristoff's forehead.

"How?"

"His lungs are full of smoke." Pabbie pulled his hand away. "Dark smoke, polluted with the blackest of magic. Kristoff's inherent goodness kept it from killing him, but he won't wake until a force of white magic, pure and honest, counteracts the darkness."

"But I don't _know_ any magic," Anna said. "I'm ordinary. Elsa's the one with the magic. I'm just-"

"You love him," Pabbie broke in gently. "You're his true love. How many times must we tell you, Anna? True love is the strongest, purest magic of all."

The other trolls nodded in solemn agreement.

"So then…" Anna glanced helplessly from Pabbie to Kristoff.

"Kiss him!" someone shouted. "True love conquers all!"

Anna blushed, but Pabbie nodded.

"Send your magic straight to his heart."

She wiped her tears away with the back of her hand and took a deep breath. Elsa had never been so relieved to see her sister smile. Anna traced her fingertip across Kristoff's bottom lip and slowly, slowly lowered her head. It was a strange kiss, a beautiful, upside down, intense kiss - a "wake up, I can't live without you" kiss, so full of love and promises and yearning that Elsa had to look away, afraid she was intruding on something private.

The trolls didn't share her concern. They watched with wide eyes and wider smiles.

When she turned her head, she caught a flash of movement at the top of the amphitheater. That prickly, wary feeling of being watched returned with greater force, and she was sure it wasn't because Tor was staring at her. This feeling came from someone else, someone evil.

She swallowed and jumped to her feet, but she was one second too late. As she ran towards the center of the amphitheater, a ring of fire appeared around the perimeter, trapping Anna, Kristoff, and Pabbie inside, and locking everyone else out. Tor ran towards her, sword in hand, while the trolls shrieked in confusion.

"What should we do?" he shouted.

"Find Hans," she said. "I'll try to put out the fire." She didn't mention that she'd never felt weaker or more exhausted, but she was afraid he could read it on her face. Perhaps that was why he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

"Be careful," he said, and ran off before she could seal his lips with ice.

He didn't run far. As Elsa sent a wave of ice over the flames, a solitary, impeccably dressed figure stepped through them, slowly, leisurely, as if it was perfectly normal to walk through fire unscathed.

"_Hans_." Elsa tried to strike him with an ice spear, but it melted before it even touched him.

He looked just as she remembered- still handsome, still sporting enormous sideburns, still radiating charm with a rakish smile- but it was a devilish sort of charm now, dark and capable of unspeakable things. When she stepped to the edge of the flames, she discovered that his eyes had darkened to black. A ring of molten gold separated the irises from the pupils - so inhuman that she shivered.

Once, he was a man who longed to overthrow a kingdom through deception. Now, he was a man determined to overthrow a kingdom through violence. With one look, she knew he would drown everyone in Arendelle without the slightest bit of hesitation or regret. And Elsa would not let him.

Oblivious to Hans, Kristoff groaned and rubbed his eyes. Very slowly, he sat upright and burst into a coughing fit. Though it probably made his coughing worse, a teary Anna threw her arms around his waist and held him tight, whispering incoherent words of love and relief. Hans watched with his hands folded behind his back, smirking. Pabbie stood between him and Anna and Kristoff, blocking his path to the couple.

But he couldn't block his words.

"Anna," Hans said, the mockery in his voice as thick as molasses, "how lovely to see that someone loves you after all."

Anna muttered a string of oaths that Elsa had never heard before, her eyes gleaming with rage in the firelight. If Kristoff hadn't held her against his chest, she would have lunged at Hans.

"You will never have Arendelle," she said. "_Never_. My sister is stronger and smarter and braver. She'll stop you. She'll-"

"You always did talk too much." He pulled off one white glove and dropped it to the floor. "If you were my wife, I would have silenced you long ago."

"You don't deserve her." Kristoff's voice sounded rough, as if he'd swallowed shards of glass. He rubbed his neck and narrowed his eyes. "You never did."

"What?" Hans tossed his other glove over his shoulder. "I'm afraid that you're confused. I don't want her." He grinned at both of them. "I'm here to kill Anna, not marry her."

"You won't touch her." Kristoff pushed Anna behind him.

"No," Hans said. He sounded amused, which made Elsa want to freeze him in a block of ice. "I'm not interested in that." He took one elegant step back. "I'd like to see how she burns."

His grin widened as he snapped his fingers, and a ball of fire appeared in his palm, floating above an elegant hand that did not pucker or burn.

"But I wouldn't mind seeing what you're hiding under that dress," he said, tossing the ball of fire back and forth between his hands. "I am sorry that I couldn't take advantage of that part of marriage. You seemed so willing the night we met."

"Don't touch me," Anna said. Her hand pressed against the dagger at her waist. "Don't you dare."

"Oh, Anna." He knelt down, his face twisted into a mockery of compassion. "When will you learn not to underestimate me? If I want to touch you, I will." With a flick of his wrist, the fireball rolled to his fingertips. "But you smell unpleasantly of reindeer, dearest. And we can't have that."

He rolled the fireball across the floor, past Pabbie, straight at Anna's long skirts. She yelped and jumped to her feet, dodging it before it singed her dress. When it shot back towards her, Kristoff leapt up and swept her into his arms. Missing its target, the fireball rolled to Pabbie, and the troll stamped it out with his stone foot before it could hurt anyone else.

"Nevermind," Hans said wearily. "I'm only teasing. When I'm ready to kill you, I won't toy with you so." He swept into a bow. "Anna, dearest, where is your enchanting sister?"

"Right here," Elsa said. The anger and fear she felt watching Hans taunt Anna begged for release. With one furious sweep of her arms, hail and icicles rained down on the ring of fire until it vanished in a loud hiss of white smoke and steam. She stepped over the wet stone with Tor at her side, stopping a hand's breadth from Hans. He held his sword, she gripped a long icicle with a point sharper than any blade or arrow.

Hans appeared unimpressed. He swept one arm behind his back and bowed, too low to be sincere.

"I see you've met my brother." He smiled briefly at Tor and turned his attention back to Elsa. "To be honest, I'm surprised you fell for his ruse. Even I didn't attempt to woo and fool you, not when Anna was such an easy and obvious mark."

"That's not true," Tor said. He touched Elsa's elbow, but she narrowed her eyes and took one step away from both brothers. "You know he's a liar! Elsa, trust me." Tor looked absolutely anguished, but Elsa had seen similar looks on Hans's face when he visited her in the castle dungeon. An expression didn't equal honesty, and she'd spent too many years trusting no one. It was so very difficult to change now. She fisted her hands and hugged them against her waist.

"Fine." Tor's voice was as cold as Elsa's hands, his face as grim as her father's when he discovered his powers. "I'll_ show_ you."

He stepped towards. Hans watched the pair with interest, and when Tor leapt to the right and sank his sword straight into his brother's side, he wasn't prepared. He let out a gasp, his eyes going wide as Tor drove the blade deeper. Blood as black and slick as oil dripped down his pristine, white waistcoat.

"You ruined our family and theirs." Tor yanked the sword out, drawing a groan of agony from Hans. "You burned a forest, you nearly drowned a kingdom, you _sold your soul_."

"And what did you do?" Hans snatched one glove from the ground and pressed it against his wound. "Nothing interesting at all."

"I helped-"

"Our eldest brother do all the tedious work he didn't wish to do himself." Sweat beaded on his forehead and he'd bent forward at the waist, but Hans still managed to laugh. "How very _fulfilling_ for you."

"I'd rather be a superfluous worker than a murderer."

"And yet you might be both." Hans grinned at him, peeling the sticky glove away from his side. "If you're lucky."

"I'm returning you to the Southern Isles," Tor said, angrily trying to regain the upper hand. "You'll receive medical attention and live out your days in prison. As you should have done the _first _time."

Hans coughed. When he straightened, blood dripped from his lips. But worse, he was laughing. He pointed to Tor. Suddenly, the sword in his hand glowed red as molten steel and he screamed, dropping it onto the floor. Dark, hot metal pooled in cavities on on his palm where skin had gripped the hilt only moments ago. Elsa grabbed his hand, holding onto it with both of hers. His entire arm trembled, his jaw clenched as if he was trying not to scream again. Elsa filled her hands with frost, freezing the metal and numbing his burned skin.

"I'm sorry I doubted you," she whispered, "so very sorry."

"It's all my brother's fault," he said grimly. He drew his hand away. "Just finish what I started."

"What he started," Elsa corrected.

Hans staggered back, into a long line of trolls who had no intention of letting him escape.

"Put me down," Anna said gently. Kristoff still held her in his arms, his face set in the most intimidating expression Elsa had ever seen. "I don't think he can hurt me now."

"He can always hurt you," Kristoff said, but he set her gently on her feet. "And I'll never let him do it again."

As soon as Anna had gained her footing, he stomped towards Hans and swung his fist straight into his face. His knuckles cracked against the cheekbones under his sideburn, sending the bottom half of his jaw right out of the socket. Hans sprawled onto the ground, one hand immediately squashed by Pabbie. Other trolls gathered to roll onto his back and crush him once and for all.

But Elsa should have known he wouldn't go down so easily. Drawing on some strength she never knew he possessed, Hans flung his free arm out. Instantly, Anna was tangled in ropes of flame.

"Anna!" Kristoff ran towards her, knocking her to the ground as her skirt and sleeves sizzled and the scent of burning hair filled the amphitheater. For one moment, Elsa stood frozen in terror, in the next, she sent an icy blast of wind at her sister. Anna moaned as Kristoff stomped on her clothes and encouraged her to roll back and forth. The flames around Anna died with Elsa's wind, but Hans wasn't finished.

He filled the clearing with flames. He struck Tor's boots, Kristoff's arms, Elsa's skirts, and every tree that surrounded the clearing. If they'd stood anywhere but the stone amphitheater, they'd all be dead.

The smoke grew thicker. It was becoming impossible for Elsa to blow it away and stop Hans's fireballs at the same time. She couldn't keep their clothes from burning. She hissed in agony as the silk of her stocking melted against her skin.

Elsa held her hands out in front of her like a shield. Kristoff and Tor had surrounded a limping Anna and were trying to find a safe way out of the clearing.

"Distract him," Tor shouted. If Hans noticed that Anna was badly hurt, he'd strike her down immediately. Elsa nodded and ran to Pabbie, who still held Hans trapped under one heavy foot. Her shoes slipped in the blood spreading across the stones beneath his body, but Hans fought like he hadn't been touched.

"Fire is always stronger than ice," he said, struggling to free himself from the trolls as he twisted his head to look up at her. "Give me Arendelle and I won't drown the kingdom."

"And Anna?" She sent ice shards up from the ground to press against his neck. "And me? And Kristoff and Tor?"

"You must die, of course. All of you." Hans blew on the ice and watched it melt in satisfaction. "Not so different from a dragon, is it?" He winked at her. In a ballroom, it might have looked flirtatiously. Here, it was threatening.

Elsa staggered back.

"Quickly, Elsa," Pabbie said. "I can feel his power growing."

For an instant, Elsa imagined Hans as a dragon or a demon, something large and black with fiery breath and leathery wings, predatory and far from human. He could fly across the fjord and melt it all in minutes.

Hans chuckled, watching her.

"Oh Elsa, how do you think I made it down the North Mountain so fast? How did I track you without being seen?"

"How much of your soul did you sell?" she whispered, fighting every instinct that screamed for her to take another step backwards.

"All of it." He didn't appear sorry.

"You'll regret it."

"I regret being born last," he said. "And once Arendelle is mine, I will overthrow the brother who ignored me."

"Perhaps you should have started there," Elsa snapped. "Instead of fighting a snow queen."

"My brother has an army," he replied, smiling at her as if she was a witless debutante. "Arendelle has two women."

"Two women who hate you." She blasted the smoke from the clearing, desperate to see if her sister had escaped. Instead, she found Anna, Kristoff, and Tor right behind her. Anna held the dagger in her hand, and she lunged forward, ready to bury it straight in Hans's back. Hans flexed his fingers.

"Drop it, Anna!"

The dagger clattered to the ground just before it melted into a puddle at her feet. Furious, Hans lashed out again. This time, his fire struck Anna across the cheek and Kristoff across the nose as he jumped to protect her.

"Enough!" Anger brought her energy and powers back. Hans was never going to hurt them again. Elsa raised her arms.

"Don't be the monster they fear you are," Hans said. He looked her straight in the eyes.

Her hands trembled. Enormous ice spears froze in midair. It was the same thing he'd said to her in her ice palace when she lost control and nearly killed the guards sent to find her. Was that what was happening now? Had she lost control?

"I-"

"You're not a killer, Elsa," Grand Pabbie said gently. She turned to look at him. "If you do this, you'll never forgive yourself."

He was right, of course. The icicles vanished.

"But Hans-"

"Has had enough," Hans said. He let out a roar of pain and hot fury, rising to his feet and knocking the trolls to their sides. Even Pabbie fell backwards. Hans turned his hands in circle above his head, a massive fireball, bright as the Sun and just as hot, formed over the clearing, growing in size by the second.

"This is for the castle," he said. "A special wedding present for Anna and the reindeer king."

"Freeze it," Kristoff whispered in her ear.

While Hans's eyes were on his fireball, he stepped forward. Anna opened her mouth to protest, but he swept in and stopped her with a kiss, as if he'd known exactly what she'd do.

"Trust me." He glanced from his wife to Tor and gave him a brief nod.

"Give me an icicle," Tor mouthed to Elsa. She tucked her hand behind her back, conjured the sharpest blade of ice she could imagine, and felt his fingers brush softly against hers as her took it from her.

"Thank you," he murmured from just behind her ear. His breath, so different from Hans's, made her shiver.

Elsa knew Kristoff was strong, but she'd never realized how strong until he charged past her and knocked Hans to ground. At the same moment the back of Hans's head hit the ground with a sickening crack, the fireball careened, uncontrolled, over the charred treetops, headed straight for Arendelle and burning anything in its path.

"Oh, no you don't," Elsa said. She raised her arms and created a snowball. Lightheaded and breathing hard, she didn't stop until it was twice the size of Hans's fireball, then she hurled it high into the air with a rush of arctic wind.

She heard the slick slice of a blade on skin and the gurgle of blood behind her, but she didn't dare look. Instead, she hugged Anna to her side and watched her creation collide with the fireball in midair. They met with a crack and sizzle as loud as lightning, each disappearing in the other and falling out of the sky in tiny drops of water.

"It's raining," Anna said, her voice giddy despite everything they'd just survived. Elsa watched her sister tilt her head back, open her mouth, and catch raindrops on her tongue.

"It's raining!" Kristoff ran to Anna's side and scooped her up with whoop of joy. He kissed her wet, ash-streaked face and she kissed him back as if her life depended on it. Their hair was singed, their clothes hung in dirty tatters, and they both sported burns badly in need of salve, but they'd never looked happier. They were completely content to stand in the rain, kissing each other senseless with an audience of one hundred, happy trolls.

She felt Tor approach her and slowly turned her head. His long hair had lost its wildness in the rain, it now fell to his shoulders, wet and straight.

"Is it over?" she asked. "For good."

He nodded grimly.

"I'll return the body to the Southern Isles on the first ship out."

She watched him wipe the rain and ashes from his face. He wouldn't quite meet her eyes.

"You're not a killer," she said.

He choked out a bitter laugh.

"It would appear that I am."

"You saved my entire kingdom," she whispered. He'd lowered his head, raindrops rolled down his nose and landed on his ruined boots. "And you saved me from doing something that would surely haunt me for the rest of my life." She swallowed and stepped closer. "I only hope it won't haunt you the same way."

"He was my brother," Tor said. He still wouldn't look at her. "Technically."

"He wasn't your brother, not anymore." She wished she knew how to comfort him. It was maddening that she could build ice castles and hurl snowballs and control the arctic winds, but she didn't know the first thing about speaking to someone she actually liked.

"He sold his soul." Tor grimaced. "I'll try to remember that. We- we should address the frozen fjord."

Elsa nodded absently. The fjord wouldn't be a problem - she'd drawn the ice up and away from it once before and she could do it again. The _fjord_ wasn't the reason her heart was pounding and she couldn't stop wringing her hands.

"Tor-" She hesitated, then slowly, ever so slowly, she reached out and brushed the hair back from his rain-soaked face.

At her touch, he finally looked at her, and she almost wished he hadn't. So much was communicated between them in that single look - longing and desire and respect and sadness and regret, for he seemed to know as well as she did that she'd made up her mind about her future. And it didn't include a king consort.

But she closed her eyes and kissed him in the rain anyway.

And when he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back, she wondered if a kiss could change one's fate.

She was willing to let him try.

~*~ THE END ~*~


End file.
